Those Chapmans – Page 26 – Out Of Their Minds Design

Hot, Hot Mid-July…

July 11th, just had to take this shot… she hasn’t been taking her shoes off during a trip nearly as much as she used to, it seems. See this im age larger.

July 14th, Nina put together this picnic one color-coordinated item at a time! Nice! See this image larger.

Same day, the kids went to Mr. Scott and Miss Elena’s to play with Rowen and Baby Jimmy. See this image larger.

Looked like fun! I didn’t go again because I had work. See this image larger.

I’m putting this in for kicks… I got this shot from Aunt Mel, and am just really impressed with Connor’s pitching stance. He’s getting so big! More on their visit soon! See this image larger.

July 15th, Nina and Ian romp around the yard. The work we had completed on the landscaping involved some new soil and grass-seed. I’m a bit gun-shy with growing grass after having basically lost an entire lawn at our old house, but this came in fine. I mention this because it was what I was doing whenever I wasn’t working or taking pictures of the kids… watering, watching and worrying. Particularly on a hill, it is a race against the weather… the roots need to take hold before the heavy rain, or the whole thing washes away. See this image larger.

Anyways, back to our cute daughter! See this image larger.

This is a nice one! See this image larger.

Nina apparently hopped right on her bike (with training wheels) and started pedaling. Given that she really only seemed to “get it” in the earlier entry of her on a big wheel, this was very impressive! You go girl! See this image larger.

Nina pretends Ian’s baseball bat is a congratulatory bottle of champagne. Mommy pretends she didn’t just erase all of the contacts on her phone. See this image larger.

Oh, hi cutie!!! (Check this one out big, so cute!) See this image larger.

🙂 See this image larger.

Hey, HEY… WHO JUST RANG OUR DOORBELL?!?! See this image larger.

As sweet as she is cute! See this image larger.

🙂 See this image larger.

Don’t we have a second kid? Where’d he go? See this image larger.

There he is! Hi, Ian! See this image larger.

Camera time, Nina, let’s see your cutest face! See this image larger.

Wait, what’s that? See this image larger.

Mommy gives piggyback rides, despite it being hot out! See this image larger.

Ian too! See this image larger.

Sorry about the blur, turns out shooting a moving target in low light is difficult! See this image larger.

July 17th, weird clouds started rolling in… a very strange sky! See this image larger.

It looked a lot like the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. See this image larger.

I know, I know, where’s the kids in this picture? They’re inside brushing their teeth. (Sorry Sweetie!) See this image larger.

Alright, last one, back to the kids! See this image larger.

July 20th, and Ian poses in the bathroom with his daddy! See this image larger.

Alright kid, back to brushing your teeth! See this image larger.

July 22nd, At Meijer, riding on Sandy the mechanical rocking horse! See this image larger.

Where Were We? Oh Yes, The Reagan Marketing + Design Garden Gala!

July 10th, Mommy took the kids to the Reagan Marketing + Design Garden Gala. I did not get to go. I will explain why in a moment. As usual, I can only guess from photos what really happened, so you’ll have to take my captions with a grain of salt. Overall, the Gala appeared to be some kind of hedonistic romp on par with Woodstock. Did you get a tattoo, little girl? Maybe twelve? (love this pic!) See this image larger.

Ian – *Ok, the coast is clear… fill your diaper.* See this image larger.

*ALL DONE!!!* See this image larger.

It turns out that Ian is actually pretty darn good with a hoola-hoop. Mommy said he’d use his body to stop it from dropping, giving himself further opportunities to get some spin. Impressive! See this image larger.

It takes two to tangle. See this image larger.

At some point, the dancing and chanting turned the children into traditionally war-painted Native Americans. Here, Ian points out a smilie face that he was awarded for helping Giggles With Cuteness to achieve a higher spiritual level. See this image larger.

This is Giggles With Cuteness. See this image larger.

Just before the police arrived and busted up the party. (I’m kidding.) See this image larger.

Everybody came home, and Nina took off on a very small big-wheel. Melissa bought this one for a buck or so. See this image larger.

The pedal reach was good at the time, and she went from having some difficulty to really doing quite well! See this image larger.

Nice job, little girl! It is fun to watch her gaining control over her legs… more on that later. See this image larger.

I had to stay home to watch over the guys doing our landscaping work. They hit our underground sprinkling pipes with a trench machine… the guy that repaired them then reversed these two, so he then cut them in the middle and swapped them. We now have eight connections where we used to have zero. The actual work that needed to be done was completed, and after three storms I can, at present, say that they did a nice job. (This is to alleviate the situation that caused our basement to get some water in it.) See this image larger.

Quick Flashback to June and Early July…

I downloaded some pictures from Aunt Mel and Mommy, and so I can fill in some gaps with this entry before moving on.

The day we went to the movies down in Ohio to escape from the power-free zone… we also ended up at Tuscora park over in Tuscarawas county. You might think I needed Melissa to tell that to me. You’d be right. It may or may not have been June 30th. I think it was. See this image larger.

There’s a train ride, and a number of other rides, it is pretty impressive! See this image larger.

Guy in the back is chillin’ See this image larger.

Alright now if that’s not the cutest thing! See this image larger.

This didn’t last long, Nina wanted out of this one in a hurry! See this image larger.

That night, at Aunt Mel and Uncle Ben’s house. We did help some neighbors gather branches for a bit, but then there was some time for play. See this image larger.